In this talk Eric Greene argues that a distinguishing feature of early Chan discourse relative to mainstream Chinese approaches to Buddhist meditation (chan)was the rejection of the semiotic potential of visionary meditative experiences. Drawing from early Chan texts, contemporaneous non-Chan meditation manuals, and recently discovered stone inscriptions from Sichuan, he suggests that one way Chan partisans redefined what it meant to be a master of meditation  was by claiming that extraordinary meditative visions were never signs of attainment. This rejection was, Greene proposes, a key element of the parting of the ways that during this time began to separate (ideologically, at least) the streams Chinese Buddhist thought and practice typically classified as Chan and Pure Land respectively.